The inactive extreme tip of the June 27 lava flow on Thursday remained about 550 yards from Highway 130 in the area west of the Pahoa fire and police stations, according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

Officials from Starwood Hotels and Resorts say they intend to convert a portion of the Sheraton Kauai Resort into timeshares as a part of a larger proposal to turn the worldwide corporation's vacation ownership arm into a separate, publicly traded company by the end of this year.

The mountain of bills that Hawaii lawmakers are tackling now looks more like a hill. More than half of the bills introduced just a month ago in the Hawaii House of Representatives have died, and lawmakers are left with 737 of the original 1,515 bills that were on the list in that chamber after pushing key proposals through legislative deadlines.

A Hawaii County councilwoman has withdrawn two bills regulating the aquarium fish trade. Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille said she'd like to wait and see what happens at the state level, West Hawaii Today reported Thursday.